The present invention relates to personal body armor, and more particularly to personal body armor for the groin and pelvic regions.
Numerous types of personal body armor exist for protection against bullets, shrapnel and other projectiles. For example, a wide range of armored vests are known to provide ballistic protection to the torso region. While widely accepted, armored vests typically leave other areas of the body exposed to injury, including for example the groin and pelvic regions. Especially in instances where the nearby femoral arteries are injured, such injuries can be life threatening and in many instances fatal.
Ballistic resistant lap panels have been developed in an effort to supplement the protection afforded by armored vests. Lap panels include pliable ballistic panels and/or rigid ballistic plates that are suspended from the wearer's waist to hang over the anterior pelvic region and groin area. Such lap panels are typically loosely coupled to the wearer's belt and rest against the wearer's anterior pelvic region when in the standing and sitting positions. Despite their growing acceptance, lap panels provide protection against predominantly forward impacts only. In addition, lap panels typically include an apex near the groin region, providing only minimal protection to the groin and femoral arteries.